You can call me Gramps.

You're probably all wondering why I chose that as the heading of this weeks post. Well, with the group ahead of me leaving this morning, it means that I am the longest serving missionary in the Poland Warsaw Mission. Kind of a mental thought, it doesn't mean anything, just makes me more aware that my time is slowly but surely coming to an end. Especially with the turn of events that have gone down this week. 

The main one of these being that I'm writing from a computer in Kielce, not Krakow, but the city in which my adventure in Poland started. With Elder Haskett leaving and my Comp Elder McMaster also flying home, that left 2 Elders without companions, so President used his brain and sent me down here for the week until transfers next week. 

Honestly it's been a strange and daunting past day or so. As I was sat eating breakfast this morning in my favourite milk bar, the first place I tried proper Polish food in the country, all these memories were whizzing about my mind, reminiscing on the long 7 weeks I spent here with Elder Taylor and Garrison, and later Elder Weiler. The streets are the same, the apartment is the same, the air is the same, the long walk up and down the Sienkiewicza is the same..2 things that aren't the same though, the mission and myself. The mission has changed both in Leadership and in Focus, we're now at 28 baptisms for the year, a mighty effort put forward from both member and missionary. I hope also that I have changed in some way for the better. 

The best thing from the week was all the preparation involved in helping our mate reach his goal of baptism on the 26th. As I am, you'll all be glad to know that the baptism went ahead, our friend is now a confirmed member of the church with a future of trials and joy ahead of him. We had a total of 4 meetings with him through the week and everything turned out well. Funny story, he came out of the changing rooms in his whites, with his clothes on underneath him, and said 'ok I'm ready!', Elder McMaster had to advise him to take his clothes off so they didn't get soaked haha, he's funny. 

I'm looking forward to a week of work and walking here in Kielce. On and upward! 

have a solid week 

Wroclaw

Wroclaw

Wroclaw

Wroclaw

Elder Groseclose and I

So long mate

Kielce

A week of laughs, rain, snow, freaky devil man, style points and good byes

Hello everyone, sorry it's been a few weeks since I've blessed you with the opportunity to read about my week. It's good to be back. 

We can start with last Monday. As it was the last Pday before transfers we had a shopping list of things to buy. We took the transporter too so we could fit everyone in, we had to clean it too. On the list were Ties from Adam's Ties, Scarfs from the Legia store and Lapel Pins from the Uprising museum. After emailing we went for lunch, we just settled for some Mcdonalds, which is always a good choice until after eating it. We went to pick the rest of the district up from a metro stop, whilst waiting we were blasting music and going over transfers with eachother..we were shown the transfer board that morning whilst emailing..so from that point we had all the knowledge that everyone else wants, I liked it but then didn't as you know what people want, but then you also know exactly what is happening with them. We took that privilege a bit far by shouting our districts transfer calls at them as they were approaching the car, we had music on and they couldn't hear us but it was funny, we continued to do that all throughout the week. we managed to check off the scarfs and ties from the list, but we didn't make it to the gift shop of the museum in time. Picked up some pretty nice ties, so I was happy. Trips in the car this transfer have always been a blast when we're all together, whether because of Einfeldt and his sketchy driving or because of us making a music video or whatever, they've all been quality. Favourite song of ours at the minute is Hallelujah done by Pentatonix, we listened to it 6 times in a row one time and many more times after that. 

We had a district meeting on Tuesday, the last of the transfer..a lot of 'lasts' happened this week. Haskett asked us all to share testimony after his bit, which was a nice end to the meeting. 

Elder Adriano came in on Wednesday. We went to pick him up from the Dworzec and then had a meeting at the office with President and the Jones' and the Assistants about transfers. More of a coordination meeting, figure out how everything was going to go down. We met the rest of the district at Nowy Świat before heading out to do some finding on the Patelnia...Oto Freaky Devil Man story. It was raining and I had no coat on as it had been warm, so I took Elder Barlow with me into a Rossman where I could buy an umbrella, done this so many times, they're cheap and I must have about 10 of them across Poland that I'd bought just for that day because it started raining. Anyway..so the others had walked on so it was just the two of us. We were on a really busy street in town and we walked past this guy who then from behind us shouted "Oi do you read the Bible", I didn't think he was talking to me but I turned around anyway to see him approaching us..he again asked us "do you read the Bible?", I answered and said 'Yeah I read the Bible do you Sir?', even though he spoke to me in English he didn't understand my English...story of my life...so we started again in Polish, we got to the same point, yeah I read the bible, do you..and all that and then he starts talking about all these problems he's having, that he doesn't know God, that he feels bad, that he feels as though we can never know him, that he's abandoned us, that he's punishing him. Just as I'm about to start talking again he just yells and starts swearing in English, every bad word under the sun, Barlow looked at me as if to say 'is this guy alright', I start talking to him again and then all of a sudden he starts saying the word 'Where', for whatever reason this was his new favourite word. He started off quietly saying this word before gradually getting louder and louder, his eyes were legit yellow and he was spitting everywhere and foaming at the mouth, he was screaming the word 'where' and when you thought he couldn't get any louder he got louder, it sounded like some crazy wolf monster. Everyone around us was looking at us like 'what the heck is going on', I was lost for words until I told him to shut up, that made him made and he came right up to my face, I thought he was going to swing or something. After a few giggles we left the scene..all that over a question about the Bible. 

On Friday we took Culture night. We spent 1 hour walking to the bowling alley in the pouring rain and snow and it was so windy. Sister D almost passed out a few times. Bowling was fun though, after that we went to Toto again for food. 

It's been really good weather for the most part this week. This past Monday  it was 14.5 degrees. I was driving round with the windows down and everything.

Saying goodbye to Sister D

Fat Thursday

@ Adam's Ties - never seen so many ties in one place

Last Sunday photo shoot with Elder Barlow,  I'll miss this guy, hope he is enjoying himself in Bydgoszcz.

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Saying our farewells to Sister D on Monday - side note..I'm not swearing, I'm doing the American one.

Week 68 - I'm not a good singer

(just a few snippets this week, it's a busy life working in the office!)

I'm doing good, it's been a decent week.  Church was good yesterday, we had about 70 or maybe 80 there and had a few missing which was really noticeable.  President Peterson asked the Missionaries to sing a musical number, for some reason I think people assume that missionaries can sing just because they're missionaries.  I mean I can hold a note and I'm not tone deaf but I'm not a good singer. We sang an arrangement of Be still my soul and Where can I turn for peace. It was pretty confusing, Elders Haskett, Einfeldt and myself sang the tenor part and it was so high - bad choice! Elder Bebel played the piano.

We had an 8 man sleepover this week which was mint! Hansen, Barlow, Dickson and Sister Beem all had legal appointments in Warsaw so we had Einfeldt, Me, Huffman, Hansen, Haskett, Barlow, Michael from Lublin who is serving a mini mission and Dickson all in the same apartment onTuesday night. It was so cramped, even in our mansion apartment, but it was sweet having all the elders round, some good friends too. 

On valentine's day we had a district dinner, plus Elder Dickson and Bart. We went to that Toto place. It was a solid night.  And after legal work this week we all went to Manekin.  We've eaten out so much this transfer and it's 'eaten' my money. So I didn't buy anything this time, but kindly Dickson and Beem gave me some left over peanut m&m pancakes which were so good! 

Today we're going to Adam's ties, the guy that sells ties all across Poland but his warehouse is here in Warsaw and he sells them for dirt cheap to missionaries. Getting some food and I might buy a Legia scarf. 

The weather is slowly getting better and the days are getting longer, so I'm happy!

My mum told me I had to make sure I wrote a blog post for this week.

Hope all is well wherever you are in the world. The weather is slowly getting better and the days are getting longer, so I'm happy. 

On Tuesday we went and got our car washed as it was filthy. We just did a drive through automatic one. We were debating whether to get out or stay in the car, other people were getting out but we decided to stay in as it was cold outside. We made a bad decision and soon enough worked out why everyone got out, it smelt horrible and eggy inside. I got out my spray and was spraying inside the car to cover the smell but it didn't work. Worst 7 minutes of our lives. We chilled on old town with Erickson and Sommerfeldt, which is when I took all the pictures and we had Amrit Kebab for lunch which is the missionary favourite in Poland. KraszKebab in Poznan still wins for me though. Also that night I got a call from Sister Demordaunt, 'Elder, honest question, would you be down to get pedicures next Monday during Pday?', to which I answered 'Heck Yes', Einfeldt on the other hand wasn't as game, so we made a deal, if Einfeldt was to get a pedicure Sister D has to wear white shirt and tie to zone conference, the deal was made..so we'll see what happens. 

EINFELDT PASSED HIS TEST! We just made it on time to the exam too with about 1 minute to spare, it was a tense ride.

We had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast on Thursday which we all watched with President from the Wolska Chapel. Some cool new changes, well at least to missionaries they're cool. The changes give us more flexibility within our day to adjust if needed. The big change is on Pday, we don't have to study anymore which gives us an extra 3 hours to get things done. Everyone is going mad as we have so much time. Nightly planning has now changed to morning planning which means when we get in at the end of the night we can just eat and chill which is nice. The first night of the changes it was a bit weird, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.  I just ended up going to bed for an hour and then watching some Bible Videos. 

We had our District meeting after the broadcast which was the usual district meeting in which we couldn't  stop laughing. Sister Beam spilt all her chips on the floor too, which happens all the time. We met a guy from Vegas in the mall who stopped us and said that he just got here a few days ago and that he saw us and recognised us as missionaries and wanted to speak with some 'AMERICANS', people are always so shocked when I say I'm from England.

We did a lot of English contacting on the Patelnia this week..the best of the week being when I carried Bebel around on my shoulders as he handed out fliers. A crazy lady came over and started to fight us, she started hitting Bebel and tried to pull him down, I didn't really know what to do so we just laughed, which is the usual response here.

The two Warsaw Branches combine on Sunday, so this past Sunday was the last meeting to be held in the Warsaw 2 building. It's cool to be around for this kind of event which will be spoken about for a while.

Everything is going well. I'm loving it here in Warsaw. Keep praying and doing good!

Manekin!

Manekin with the District. Yes Elder Haskett has some M&M Pancakes

The only plus to driving a Smart Car.

Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku z Warszawy

So I had to give a talk yesterday in church, just to introduce myself and all that. My topic was 'Feed my Sheep'.  Church was mental, Warsaw 2 is the biggest branch in Poland, with about 80 members, half of them made up of American families. There were kids running about which was weird, and it lasted all 3 hours which was also kind of strange. I've not had 3 hours of church since my last Sunday back in England.  The Branch President is American, but everything is translated that is done in English.  The priesthood class was done in Russian, which was then translated into English, which was then translated into Polish.  There are 6 missionaries in the branch.  Me, Einfeldt, Haskett, Barlow, Sisters Beem and DeMordaunt.  We have a number of recent converts that we work with, and 1 or 2 investigators. 

It takes around 10 mins by car to get to church, so not too far. It's nice being in a car, it was nice to ride bikes around Lublin but having a car is so cool. I drove the meriva for a few days last week.  I don't have to take tests or anything so I'm good to go whenever.  It felt so good to drive again...plus the meriva has a sweet turbo.  We get new cars in Feb of this year so I'll be driving them. 

On New Years Eve we had Elder Haskett and Elder Barlow come to our place and we chilled. We were allowed to stay up till 12. It's a nice apartment, I'll get pics for next week.  

It snowed a bit this morning but it wasn't much.  Sorry for the no long email again.

Just know that I'm well and healthy and loving it here in Warsaw.  

Warsaw 2 Missionaries

Ice skating with the squad

Last Sunday in Lublin

Lublin

Wesołych Świąt. Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!

So this week has come around so fast. We've been up to no good as usual and transfers are soon approaching. I'm not too nervous, I'm just happy to be spending Christmas here in Lublin with the Brothers. 

We had our exchange with Elders Haskett and Barlow this week. It was a good time. I've never been around Elder Haskett until this transfer so it was good being around him for a few days. The exchange started Wednesday night after English. For English we decided to practice writing letter to Santa. So we went through a bunch of ways to start letters, the most commonly picked being 'Yo Santa waddup'. It was a good laugh as usual, especially when Elder Dooley wrote that he wanted a pet dragon for Christmas as he doesn't like paying for his bus ticket, he's one of a kind haha. 

So on Thursday, our day started with us being fed breakfast by Elder Dooley, although the pancakes he made were terrible. He got up way earlier to prepare them and woke me up with the question..'do you have any eggs? I only have week old rotten eggs', well I didn't have any eggs so he continued to make the pancakes with rotten eggs..to the surprise of Elder Dooley they didn't taste too good. So we frisbeed them off our balcony, which amused us for a few minutes. We left the house around 9am and tried to catch everyone going to work and school, we have these '#ŚwiećŚwiatu' cards that we need to hand out before Christmas, we have a few boxes of them, so it seemed a good time to go and hand them out early. We went for some hot chocolate again at a place called 'U Szewca' on the rynek, looks just like an English pub, the hot chocolate is so good too, another bonus being that the United V Palace game was being shown on the TV so I got to watch about 30 mins of the game. Get In! 

That evening we were invited round to Ela's house as we arranged to cook for her to repay her for all the meals she's made for us. All 6 of us were there and we just made some proper missionary food, chicken and rice with some potatoes and salad, not too similar to a Classic Polish meal either. It was a solid evening, good people, Christmas music and all that. 

Friday we had our Friday night movie playing at the chapel, we finished the rest of Meet the Mormons and we had a few people show which was good. A guy called Marek came who we meet with from time to time, one of the nicest guys I've met. 

Saturday came around and we took a trip out to Świdnik for some service. Always a blast when we go out there. this time round, we shovelled coal, it confirmed Elder Hansen's thoughts of Eastern Europe..he said 'this is what I imagined when I thought of things I could get up to on my mission'. We shovelled a ton of it...about 1000kg of coal..and then threw it down a shoot into her basement. It was epic! Lunch came, prepared by Beata's mum, which is always quality food. 

The bus ride home was long, by accident we took the longer route home, which is why it was longer. But it worked to our advantage as both Elder Huffman and I were able to chat to the people that sat next to us. Of course the two girls that get on the bus would take the empty seats next to me and Elder Huffman over the many other empty seats.

We arrived home to a very misty and foggy Lublin. We had a bizarre idea for English planned which involved a backwards theme. So for the night we referred to each other as our names but backwards, and we wore our clothes backwards and we walked backwards, faced the wrong way, and just made a fool of ourselves as usual but it was funny. 

Sunday we had our special Christmas sacrament service which involved our branch choir and reading of the birth of christ from the bible, it was nice. I did the narration of the story in Polish and Elder Huffman read it in English. The 4 of us Elders and Michael sang a rendition of 'oh come, oh come, Emmanuel', it went alright I suppose. 

Then came the injury from the week. I shaved this morning before church, got to keep control of the beard you know, I threw my razor on my bed (as you do), then when I got home after church I jumped on my bed and somehow managed to slice my hand a few times on my razor. Who knew that a 4 titanium blade Wilkinson Sword razor from Rossman could have been so deadly!  It legit didn't stop bleeding for about 2 hours. So stupid haha. 

Sunday night we had a dessert and games night with the branch and friends at the Belo's home. It was good to be together before people go back home for Christmas.

So by next week I'll have my transfer call. We'll see what happens. So we have a cool day planned today. We're eating after this and then going shopping for a bit. at 15.30 we're going ice skating with some friends and then at 18.30 we have a bowling family home evening activity planned. So today is kind of a chill out day.

It's not snowing at the minute but it's been snowing, it's been down to -5 most nights, so it's cold. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Take it easy!

Starszy Ashworth 🎄. 

District Christmas photo. We went for the 'ghetto' look on purpose.

The snowy streets of Lublin

We shovelled a ton coal for some service

Out with the squad for some food 

DoolMaster 300